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In this era of economic slow down, effective marketing technique determines the success of your business. With the recent internet boom there is a constant doubt about how useful would it be to promote your business using traditional methods of advertising using print media like newspapers , flyers , brochures , direct mails and other promotions. The recent survey from Okidata reveals that 91% of the small businesses still depend on the print media for all their promotional and marketing needs.

In this world of cut throat competition you have to make your mark by grabbing the attention of the public by making them aware of what sets you apart from the crowd. To make audiences aware of your unique selling proposition, you need to market aggressively using low cost printed material. About 72% of small business owners make use of their own computers and printers for creating printed material for advertising which include sending business proposals & promotional letters, flyers, brochures, marketing booklet, direct mails, advertisements in news papers and also presentations. Another important printed media used for business networking is exchanging of business cards. So let’s see how we can effectively use printed materials for promoting our products and services even during bear market:-

1.  Get a Custom Logo & Business Cards

The first step to promote your business is coming up with a logo that instantly catches person’s eye and becomes synonym with your business. Be it Ronnie of McDonalds or “just do it!”  The tag line of Nike has helped them in promoting their business. Search for a local artist or a design firm online; explain them about your business and what you had been looking for. To get a better deal you can ask the same graphic firm to come up with the design for your letter heads and business cards which will help you in getting a great discount along with the relevant stationary to promote your business.

Business card are a reflection of who you are, what you sell and when and where you can be contacted. Research reveals that more then 33% of the business alliances are established by the exchange of business cards. All the more reasons for getting your business cards printed quickly!

2.  Direct Mail 

Ever thought how useful a cheap expensive postcard can be in marketing your business? A witty saying, colorful graphics and an overview of your business with your phone number and business address should form the basic content of your postcard marketing strategy. Everyone loves receiving mails and the mail becomes more special if it has something great to offer. To promote business you can even provide small gifts to all those customers who visit your store with your promotional postcards which will surely make the customers look around and purchase other merchandise. Use bright colors and avoid using very small fonts to create good marketing postcards which will surely help in moving up your sales.

3.  Get Published in Trade Journals & Organize Road Shows

So you want your company’s name to be in limelight and in people’s mind, contribute white papers and successful case studies to the leading trade journals subscribed by customers and other organizations. This is the best way to send the signal of your success across the masses.

Also come out with your newsletters and send them to your potential clients informing them about the new updates and new events that had been organized by your firm.You can further promote your business by sending your top officials as key speakers to some of the top conferences and trade fairs. Therefore by using some simple technique you can still end up increasing your revenue by using some efficient yet inexpensive promotional methods. You can even organize road shows and design attractive presentations to inform the clients about your business and success stories. Also try to rope in few of their past satisfied clients which will assist you further in getting more clients.

4.  Brochures & Flyers

An excellent way to promote your business to the largest target audience, who are not even computer savvy, is by making use of flyers and brochures. Apply “Keep It Simple” rule while designing your brochures. A clean layout with product listing including some images and key features of each product and service which you have to offer should be placed in your brochure.Understand who would be your target audience and come up with the brochures material keeping customer in mind.

You have a very short time span from about 30 seconds to a maximum of three minutes to capture customer]s attention, so power pack your brochure with only relevant information. With the onset of digital printing it is all the more reason to get your flyers and brochures printed at a lesser cost per unit even if you want to get only a small quantity of brochures to be printed at first. So try marketing your services using inexpensive brochures in this time of economic slow down.

5.  Marketing Booklets

So you had sent letters, followed up with brochures and attracted a customer finally to your store, the next marketing strategy would be to prepare a 6-8 page marketing booklet for increasing business to business and also business to consumer marketing. This booklet should include details of your product along with the relevant images and graphics, FAQ’s, case study and yes the last page of the booklet should contain testimonials from the successful customers which help in establishing your credibility. Vibrant, colorful and with useful information a marketing booklet helps in reaching out and winning more customers.

Print media is an effective way to promote your business when the world is experiencing the down swing in economy. Keep the AIDCA (Attract, Interest, Desire, Conviction & Action) philosophy in mind while designing your brochures, marketing booklets, newsletters and advertisements which will help you in generating sales even when the going gets tough.

Successful marketing consultant and founder of Bonita Springs Newt Barrett is right in his observations when he stated that “Compelling content generates highly qualified leads”. A likeable content, generating response from the customer marks the beginning of success for your business. The challenge in front of us today is how to create an effective content that is successfully able to attract the attention of the reader. In this era of economic slow down you can sharpen your marketing strategy and downplay recession by promoting business by developing and hoisting likeable contents.

Following critical commandments can help you in coming up with a winning plan:-

Commandment #1 : Catchy Title Followed By a Great Story

Remember old days when we used to be enthralled by the fairytales and other stories told to us by our parents and doting grandparents? Also weren’t the stories with amazing titles selected first like Sinbad the Sailor, Goldie Locks and Three Bears? Well apply the same theory while creating content. Create an effective heading which conveys what content is about to follow without being too verbose. Creating a catchy title with appropriate keywords will also increase the search engine listing of your web page drawing more visitors. Studies have revealed that a catchy phrase used as a headline is bound to attract readers in reading the entire write up.

Following the title gives the viewer a brief glimpse about yourself and your company. Tell them about your success stories and excellent testimonials received from the satisfied clients. Your content should also convey what products and services you have them to offer and what is your unique selling proposition which makes you stand apart from the crowd. Remember it is essential to convey the benefits which your product and service can offer to a client. And yes, do allow the visitors to share their story with you for an effective two way communication which will also help in enhancing your own content.

Commandment #2 : Good Looks More Hooked

A well presented dish always tempts you in trying it so is the case with the content. Presenting your data in a clear format which is easily readable makes it attractive to the reader. Short, simple and crisp sentences are successful in holding the attention of the user. Also aren’t you attracted trying a fitness product marketed by Cindy Crawford looking svelte in a sexy swimsuit? Or you always want to pick up the protein shake which is being sold with the snap of Mr. America displaying his 6 packs? Well in a nutshell, always compliment your content with appropriate images as a “picture speaks a thousand words”. So be it while writing a travelogue to visit places in Spain, attach the photographs of the various attractions which will attract the visitor to read about them and find out the timings to visit those attractive destinations.

Also while promoting a product you can even emphasize on the products benefits by including the growing demand bar graph of the product inside your content which will compel buyers in at least starting with the dialogue.

Commandment #3 : Be Passionate & Produce Relevant Content

John Rohn the famous motivational speaker once said “Effective communication is 20% what you know and 80% how you feel about what you know.” Your passion is reflected in your content. A critical element needed for creating likeable content is to have a thorough understanding about the subject and also the product that you are trying to endorse. Always conduct a thorough research and understand customers expectation which will help you in coming up with the relevant content. Readers have a short attention span and if you are not offering them relevant data they will move on. To hold on to your visitors you can even provide the readers with the relevant links which that supports your facts and figures. W

While writing your content make it as useful as possible for the user, include practical tips , provide useful details and introduce relevant terms and links. Relevant data and likeable data are bum chum buddies and go hand in hand.

Commandment #4 : Consistency in Creativity & Fabulously Fresh

Consistent writing style and layout will help in forming a better association with your readers. While promoting your data online ensures that the same layout is being used in all the site pages which will prevent the user from being confused. Using a clear, concise writing style will leave no scope for ambiguities. Be adventurous while creating content, use fresh ideas; keep updating the data so that you are able to maintain users interest in your content. Sites like Ikea have come up with the concept of visual characters which guide the customers towards the relevant product by providing all the useful information. It will be the freshness of your content and unique ideas which will generate interest in the readers making your content extremely likable.

Commandment #5 : Readable, Easy to Scan & Personalized

What will be your reaction if during the course of reading you stumble upon a big paragraph with no sections or sub headings? Well the answer is simple: skip it! Same holds true for your readers. Therefore create your content in a format which is easy to read and scan as readers usually won’t have much time to scan your post. Create content using heading and sub headings, while creating a data on “How to create effective content?” give information point wise or step wise which will be easier for the user to follow. Try using italics, graphics or images to increase the readability of your content. Also try to personalize the contents, taking the example of Amazon when a user reads a particular content it also highlights the related content which might be useful for the reader. Providing a client with customized content will surely make him feel like a king!

Remember success means doing ordinary things extraordinarily well!

The latest report by web guru Jacob Neilson reveals that people have become more impatient and need quicker results while searching for a keyword on web. Another interesting fact is that now 75% people prefer to directly reach the page of their interest rather then navigating through the links from the home page. So if you feel attracted toward the websites of the entertainment firms with flashy designs and want to create a promotional website using same design, think again as the main traffic pullers are simple websites which are easier to load and navigate. To understand why Keep It Simple Stupid philosophy should be applied while creating a website.

1. Faster Loading of Web Pages

   Imagine a user having 56k or a modem which is still slower trying to access your page which is of 12kb size. As compared to a high speed broadband connection which may take only a fraction of second to load your page , user with a slower modem will require at least 4-5 second to view your first page. The loading time will increase with the addition of flash images and other graphics. You may make your site attractive by heavy use of flash but will it be user friendly is the question you need to ask. Therefore applying the principal of KISS design a simple website with a lighter load it will greatly reduce the transmission time which in turn will favorably affect the transmission speed making your site attractive to the users.

2. Simple Attractive Content = More Buyers

   The main reason which attracts a visitor to your website is the search for information. The website content should be simple and easy to understand. Another important factor which can add to your websites success would be the way the data is presented: Are there too many tables, is the font size too big or too small, what is the color of the background and your font color, all these factors makes the text easy or difficult to read. What is needed to make a website success is not the clutter of unnecessary graphics and animations but the right content that can promote effective communication. Word of advice: create a simple website with clear layout, right font and simple sentences and you have a winner.

3. Reduces Number of Clicks

   Keeping the website simple also results in ease of navigation which is one of the important factors a user looks for while browsing the content. What can be more frustrating then searching the webpage for the correct link? Therefore it is always advisable to place the links at the top or on the left hand frame of the webpage for easy visibility. Also the success of the website is also defined by the fact if the user is able to find its content within three clicks or three drill downs. It becomes all the more crucial for you to have a simple website if you are selling a product online. Nothing pleases customer more then finding the information they are searching for effortlessly. So have a clean simple layout with links placed at the same location on the home as well as inner pages to make your site user friendly and easy to navigate.

4. Ease of Use & Creation

   One of the most important rules of marketing is “Grandma’s” Rule. If an elderly person with not much acquaintance of the latest technology is able to make a successful purchase through your website then your efforts are entirely successful. Therefore see that your website is not crowded with useless data and filled with ads which will confuse the visitor with the promotional offers and distract him from making the actual purchase. A website should be easy to access, easy to register with and should support all the major credit cards for making payments. Simplifying the look of your website will not make it more appealing but the enjoyable shopping experience will make you earn a regular customer. Also you can take advantage of one of the many simple website software available in the market to create your own simple HTML website thus saving on both the cost and the time in launching your website.

5. Search Engine Optimization Management

   Do you know that search engines are able to process simple HTML sites and their contents faster then the contents of the complex sites? It will also be interesting to learn that the sites containing a large amount of graphics and frames gets eliminated while search is being performed using keywords in search engines like Google. This will result in lower ranking of your web page as compared to simple HTML websites, in turn resulting in decrease in number of visitors. Therefore for proper SEO your best bet will be creation of a simple HTML website with proper keywords inserted in meta-tags at appropriate places which will increase in higher ranking of your website when a search is performed using a particular keyword.

6. Lesser Options More Visitors

   What makes Apple’s website one of the most popular online marketing destination in the world? Well the answer is minimalist design of the apple’s home page and inner pages. The inner pages of the Apple’s website only list one product per page with a simple header and informational links providing information about the same product. No unrelated products on side bars, no unnecessary clutter to confuse the buyer just plain description about the product helps in making user a faster choice. Hence always go for a simple design with only relevant information which will help in eliminating distraction thus helping to streamline the buyers’ thoughts towards making a purchase.

7. Browser compatible and Bandwidth efficient

   Another advantage of having a simple design is that a simple HTML website is usually browser compatible. Different browsers like IE , firefox , opera or safari distorts and displays the columns , tables , formatting tags and embedded images differently. Therefore while designing a complex website lot of emphasis has to be laid to make the web page browser compatible. Also lots of formatting and images on the web page requires a lot of bandwidth proving to be very costly. Keep the website simple not only proves to be bandwidth efficient but can let multiple users enjoy your site simultaneously.

For some KISS may mean “Keep it Simple Stupid, for others it may mean “Keep it short & simple” but for us KISS refers to “Keep It Simple (for) Success. So apply KISS to website design and get a user friendly, bandwidth efficient, search engine optimized websites attracting more number of visitors resulting in more business.

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